Morality Part 1 For Confirmation Students

Sex and Marriage

1. God designed men and women to have complementary halves of a reproductive system.
2. The reproductive system is complete when the two halves join together through the sexual embrace, and the sexual embrace between one man and one woman is the only way for the system to be complete.
3. We need only to look at the male’s sperm and the female’s ovum (egg) to know that the system is designed for procreation through sexual union.
4. The sperm is designed to fertilize the ovum and the ovum is designed to receive the sperm.
5. The design, therefore, implies that the sexual act’s purpose is to create children, which is accomplished through the organic (of the organs) union of one man and one woman through the sexual embrace.  These newly created children have one mother and one father.
6. Due to the sexual act’s design to bring about the existence of other human beings and organically unite a man and woman, marriage is the divine construct under which this act should occur.
7. In marriage, properly speaking, one man and one woman promise themselves to each other for their reciprocal care, for the care of their children, and for the care of society (familial, secular, and ecclesial).  Afterall, people are born into families and societies and are designed to participate in the common good.
8. Marriage, therefore, is designed to create a loving, committed relationship in which husband, wife, and children love and care for one another for the benefit of themselves and society.
9. Marriage is designed to reflect the sacrificial marriage between Christ and his Church.  Christ loves his wife so much that he sacrificed himself to save his bride and as an example of supreme love.  The Church is called to imitate Christ’s love by loving God above all else and our neighbors as ourselves.
10. Sexual intercourse (within marriage) has four purposes:
    1. Procreation
    2. Union of one man and one woman
    3. Remedy for lust
    4. Perfection of the spouses
11. Read Catechism paragraphs 1638-1654.

Sexual Sins

1. Since sex is designed to be the total giving of a man and woman to one another, contraception is opposed to sex and, therefore, to marriage.  Contraception is deliberate interference with sexual intercourse to prevent conception.  Contraception includes barriers (condoms), withdrawal, chemicals, and sterilization (definition 1b).  Contraception is not only designed to prevent conception, it prevents organic union.  Contraception either prevents the man from completely sharing himself or the woman from completely sharing herself.  The result is mutual objectification (i.e. lust, using each other purely for sexual pleasure rather than lovingly embracing each other for union and procreation) (CCC 2370).
2. Fornication is sex between two unmarried people.  Since a sacred promise to join together for the sake of each other, their potential children, and society, is not made, sex in this type of relationship seeks to objectify one another.  In other words, the man and woman have sex just for the fun of it.  Although sex is designed to be pleasurable, pleasure is not the end for which sex was created.  Rather, pleasure is part of the motivation for sex (CCC 2353).
3. Adultery is sex between one of the married members and another who is not the spouse.  Adultery, like fornication, seeks to objectify one another.  This sexual embrace not only violates the marital promise, it seeks to disrupt and even destroy the family unit (CCC 2380-2381).
4. Pornography takes what should be a sacred union between a man and woman and puts it on display to be objectified (CCC 2354).  Masturbation turns the sexual act inward, seeking self-gratification rather than a loving embrace between a married person and his/her spouse (CCC 2352).
5. Homosexual behavior is sexual activity between persons of the same sex.  Since there can be no organic union or procreative purpose to homosexual sex, this kind of sex is purely for gratification.  Additionally, since union and procreation cannot exist in homosexual sex (i.e. the halves of the reproductive system are not complementary), same-sex marriage is a fantasy; it does not exist despite what our schools and government say (CCC 2357-2359).
6. Polygamy makes a mockery of sex and marriage (CCC 2387).  The human body’s design clearly points to sexual intercourse being between one man and one woman.  Polygamy is nothing but adultery wrapped in a marriage façade (definition 2).